I am diffident about suggesting
it. However, elemental processes lead to large structures sometimes.
The Egyptian pyramids were built ages before the age of steam and
electricity, and scientists are still wondering how those massive stones
were ever put in place.

"The exercise I use most, apart from scales, is really based upon a
principle which is constantly employed in all scale playing and in all
piano playing, that of putting the thumb over and under the fingers. Did
you ever stop to think how continually this is employed? One hardly goes
one step beyond the elemental grades before one encounters it. It
demands a muscular action entirely different from that of pressing down
the keys either with the finger, forearm or arm motion.

"Starting with the above-named principle and devising new exercises to
meet the very human need for variety, I play something like this:

[Illustration]

"The next form would employ another fingering--

[Illustration]

"The next form might be--

[Illustration]

"These I transpose through several keys, for instance--

[Illustration]

"Note that I am not giving an arbitrary exercise, but simply suggesting
the plan upon which the student may work. There is a great deal of fun
in devising new exercises. It assists in helping the student to
concentrate. Of course, these exercises are only attempted after all the
standard exercises found in books have been exhausted.

AVOID TOO COMPLICATED EXERCISES

"I often think that teachers make a great mistake by giving too
complicated exercises. A complicated exercise leads away from clear
thinking and concentration. The simple exercise will never seem dull or
dry if the pupil's ambition is right. After all, it is not so much what
is done as how it is done. Give less thought to the material and more to
the correction of the means with which one plays. There should be
unceasing variety in studies. A change at every practice period is
advisable, as it gives the pupil new material for thought. There are
hundreds of different exercises in the different books, and the student
has no reason for suffering for want of variety."

QUESTIONS IN STYLE, INTERPRETATION, EXPRESSION
AND TECHNIC OF PIANOFORTE PLAYING

SERIES II

WILHELM BACHAUS

1. Does the technical material of to-day differ greatly from that of
forty or fifty years ago?

2. State something of the efficacy of scales.

3. State three sources of technical material sure to inter